


Cure for Our Love

by CarnivalofBrokenDolls (yourrhinestoneeyes)



Category: Gotham (TV)
Genre: Depression, F/M, Hurt/Comfort, M/M, Oswald worrying about Victor, Slight fluff, Slightly Romantic, Victor remembering and missing Nora, Victor trying to cure himself
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-07-02
Updated: 2017-07-02
Packaged: 2018-11-22 11:39:37
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 3
Words: 3,656
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11379444
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/yourrhinestoneeyes/pseuds/CarnivalofBrokenDolls
Summary: Victor felt he was so very close to finding the right formula for a cure, a way to free himself of his icy prison. He just wanted to fix himself so that he could give Oswald the life he deserves to have.





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> I felt like writing sad Victor and also writing some Victor with Nora, decided to spend two days writing all three of the chapters. I hope you enjoy.

Victor felt that he was so close to finding a cure for his condition, he was so close he could feel it in his bones. His body felt heavy with exhaustion, his eyes were sore, he’d been locked away in his makeshift lab for nearly a week now. Ever since he discovered a potential breakthrough he hadn’t wanted to let anything distract him from his work, he needed this.

He held up the plastic vial that contained what he prayed was the cure to this disease. The liquid it contained was of a dark oceanic blue hue, he felt so happy he could cry. If this was it then he could go back to being just a normal man. He could finally rid himself of his customized freezer suit, he’d look like he used to look before his failed suicide attempt. He’d be able to comfortably sleep upstairs in the king-sized bed that belonged to Oswald, they could properly share a bed together. The thought made him smile, he never truly thought he’d get to sleep with him without fear of running out of time or of causing him harm from the cold of his body. Victor thought of how much Oswald shivered when they touched, when they had sex, but he’d always cup Victor’s cheeks and swear to him the cold didn’t hurt, not that much. He hated that when he touched him he knew it pained him, with this cure that wouldn’t be an issue any longer. 

Victor prepped the area on his arm that would be the injection site, he filled the syringe with the amount he knew should do it. He held his breath as he injected himself with the medicine watching as it emptied the syringe, he felt a burn in his skin as it entered his body and he prayed that was a good sign. He leaned back in the wood chair staring up at the iced over ceiling of his room. He wondered how long he would have to wait for it to do anything, he knew it was silly to think it would just be automatic, but he was impatient. He knew it was early or late depending on how one wanted to look at it, in the past week he’d only had maybe a total of eight hours of sleep. He knew right now that Oswald would still be in bed, fast asleep. It was killing Victor being away from him this week, he knew that his boyfriend would be pissed off at him, but if he could cure himself then he was sure that Oswald would forgive him for ignoring him.

He sighed heavily as he continued to wait. He checked the time noting that close to fifteen minutes had passed since he injected himself. He was beginning to grow concerned that it wasn’t going to work, he felt a tightness in his chest as he realized he might have failed. God even knew what would happen if anything did, he figured he’d deal with physical pain or sickness, just like the other times he’d injected himself with medicines that turned out to be utter failures. Victor buried his face in his hands to muffle his frustrated screams. A week of isolation, he had months’ worth of research, and not a damned thing to show for it. He was still the same. He lowered his hands looking at them, his skin remained pale nearing the color of snow, a shine to his skin that almost made him think of a corpse. He clenched his jaw just to keep himself from screaming more, the last thing he needed was to wake Oswald and the girls. 

He stood up abruptly knocking the chair over, he grabbed the table in front of him by the edge and shoved it over knocking all the bottles and vials to the floor. He stood there breathing heavily, chest heaving as he looked at the wreck he’d made of things, he felt like a complete failure just like he had when he’d been searching for a cure to Nora’s condition. He couldn’t help her, couldn’t save her, and now he couldn’t even save himself. 

Victor resigned himself to his bed, he crawled under the frost coated blankets pulling them up over his head. He pulled the photo out from beneath his pillow staring at it, a picture of him with Nora on their one year anniversary. He smiled sadly at it, a wave of nostalgia coming over him as he focused on her beautiful smiling face. She’d still been so healthy back then; a lifetime together was supposed to be ahead of them. He let out a shaky breath closing his eyes, he struggled to remember her, to feel her.

“I’m sorry I couldn’t save you my Nora, I tried, I really tried.” He whispered as he clutched the photo in his hand. 

Despite his intense sadness he still fell asleep relatively quickly.


	2. Chapter 2

She was the most beautiful woman Victor had seen in his life, that was what he had thought from the first moment he had laid eyes on Nora. It still stunned him every morning when he woke up in bed next to her, nothing made him happier than wrapping his arms around her pulling her small body close to him. She would nuzzle against his chest, trailing feather light kisses against his skin. She pulled back to look up at him, a smile playing on her lips. 

Victor stroked his fingers against her cheek feeling the soft warmth of her skin, she placed her hand over top of his turning her head to the side to kiss against his palm. 

“Good morning, Mrs. Fries” 

She laughed as she nuzzled against his large hand.

“We’ve been married for two years, you always act like we just got married yesterday.”

He kissed her gently allowing his lips to linger against hers’ for a moment before pulling back.

“You’re my soulmate, remember?”

Nora placed her hands against his broad chest gently pushing him onto his back. She moved on top of him straddling his stomach, she held his face in her hands staring down at him lovingly. He admired her, her thick curly hair, her soft loving face, and the beautiful curves of her body. He placed his hands on her hips holding her close against him, he loved the feeling of her skin on his, he felt no matter what he could never get close enough to this woman. She kissed him deeply teasingly biting his bottom lip.

“It’s too early to be so romantic.” She whispered against his lips.

He moved a hand to the back of her head his fingers stroking through her hair. Victor kissed her, he kissed her cheeks, and the tip of her nose. She giggled and it was the sweetest sound he’d heard in his life. He wanted them to be like this forever, he could so easily picture that.

“I think I’m just still in shock that you agreed to marry me, even if it was two years ago.”

She blushed looking away from him, she started to say something, but before she could really speak she began to cough. She placed her hand over her mouth as harsh coughs wracked her body, Victor sat up pulling her onto his lap, he rubbed his hand up along her back trying to sooth her. Once the coughing stopped he held her close.

“Are you alright?”

“I am, it’s nothing Victor, it’s just that cold.” She assured smiling up at him.

She took hold of his hand holding it in hers, she looked down at their joined hands.

For three weeks now she had been sick, it seemed quite off and on for the most part. At first it had started with her throwing up early in the morning, it led to loss of appetite, and to a lot of coughing.

Victor kissed her forehead then her lips, she kissed him back deepening the kiss as she placed her free hand against the back of his head tangling her fingers in his soft dark brown hair.

“You know the first two times that you threw up I was thinking you might be pregnant.” He admitted, he moved a hand to her bare stomach. His fingers splaying over her soft smooth skin.

Nora placed a hand over his keeping his hand there, she smiled up at him.

“How many children would you like to have?” She asked curiously.

The smile on his face, the way his brown eyes lit up filled her with so much joy. 

“Two”

“Boys or girls?”

“Anything would be fine with me, but one boy and one girl would be nice. If we have a daughter we can name her Nora.”

She laughed burying her face against the side of his neck, she kissed against his skin. She sighed happily, she felt so happy being wrapped up in his strong arms. She reminded herself of the doctor’s appointment she had scheduled for later in the morning and felt the sense of dread about it, she didn’t want to ruin the comfortable mood between them by voicing her concerns about what might be going on. Instead she remained in his arms kissing along his neck, kissing his freckled shoulders and telling him she had never loved a better man in her life.


	3. Chapter 3

Victor woke alone in his twin sized bed, the photo of Nora and himself still in his hand. He looked at her smiling face and tears filled his eyes. The dream, the memory of her hurt him so deeply. That morning had been the last time they had been truly happy, they had held each other just kissing and enjoying each other’s company. He’d made breakfast for the both of them, they had showered together, and he had offered to drive her to the doctor’s and to sit with her, but she had declined the offer saying it would be quick.

He’d waited for her to come home, had called her a dozen times only for his calls to go straight to her voicemail. Finally, she had come home, her arms wrapped around herself, and a faraway look in her eyes. Softly she had told him that she had bad news, that it wasn’t just a cold. That evening had been the worst, well the beginning of many bad days. He had sworn to himself and to her that he’d find a way to cure her, but nothing had worked out. 

A part of him knew maybe it was selfish what he’d wanted to do, it wasn’t what she had wanted. He knew she wouldn’t have wanted him to try and take his own life either, he wondered how disappointed in him she would be if she could see all the horrible things he’d done since her death.

He told himself he should get up from his bed, that he should clean up the mess he’d made the night before, but his body felt heavy. Instead he just lay and looked at the mess of chemicals and broken glass on the floor, a chemical smell hung heavy in the air, but it didn’t bother him any. His arm ached from where he had injected himself. He stretched out his arm looking at the injection site, the skin was already scabbing over, it did look slightly discolored, and he mildly worried he might have an infection. There was a nausea in his stomach, a few seconds later he was scrambling out of bed and grabbing a metal bucket up from the floor. 

His body ached as he threw up into the bucket, he didn’t even know what there was in his stomach to expel, it had been so long since he’d really eaten anything of sustenance. Once he was down to dry heaving and violent coughing fits he set the bucket back on the floor and returned to his bed. He sat down leaning his head back against the wall, his breathing was heavy, and tears stung his eyes.

Harsh knocking on the door to the freezer startled him, initially he thought it might be Ivy. He knew the girl liked to get up early and make breakfast for everybody, in the year they all shared a home she had it memorized what each member of the household preferred to eat or what they could handle eating in Victor’s case. 

“Victor? Victor open the door, please.” Oswald’s voice called from the other side.

Victor cursed under his breath, he wasn’t entirely sure he could deal with seeing Oswald right now. He still felt like an absolute failure, a failure who spent a week working on what he thought was a cure, but turned out he only made something that caused him sickness and a mild infection. He didn’t need Oswald to see that he gave a total loser access to his bank account, endless funds for dead end research.

“You can’t just lock yourself in here, it’s been a week. Please, I miss you and I’m getting worried about you.”

He knew it would be cruel to keep him out, he also knew that this was ultimately Oswald’s home, and he could have the door removed if he got frustrated enough by Victor ignoring him.

He got up from the bed and made his way to the door, he unlocked it, and opened it. Oswald stood there in his heavy coat and black gloves, Victor could tell from his blood shot eyes and flushed face that he’d been crying. 

“I’m sorry” Victor said, his voice soft.

Oswald wrapped his arms around his waist hugging him tightly, Victor reached around him to push the door shut before returning the embrace. He rests his chin on top of the smaller man’s head, he could feel the warmth of his body wrapped around him and to some extent it was uncomfortable but completely worth it. He pressed a kiss to the top of his head before pulling back, Victor placed a hand against his cheek stroking his cold fingers against warm freckled skin.

“Why have you been in here, you haven’t been at the club, or with me when I go to meetings. I’ve mostly been going with Bridgit and Ivy, which is fine, but I miss having you around.”

“I was working on something, I thought I’d finally figured out a cure for my condition, but I somehow fucked it up. Now I just have a trashed work space, a sick feeling stomach, and an infection.”

Oswald looked at his arm, he gently touched his fingers along his slightly discolored skin, a look of concern on his face.

“I’ll get you all new equipment, better than what you were working with before. Anything you need, you know it isn’t an issue.” He assured him.

Victor pulled away from him, he walked away from the smaller man going back to his bed. He sat down leaning back against the headboard, in no time Oswald was sitting on the edge, a hand over his.

“I hate asking you for these things.”

“You don’t have to ask, I gave you full access to everything I have financially, and if you haven’t noticed lately business is doing quite well for me.” He bragged, a devious smile on his face.

There was a light in those bright green eyes of his that made Victor smile despite the depression that he felt taking hold of him.

“Is the club really doing that good?”

“Yes, well that and a few other things I have my hands in.”

“Don’t you think you’ll need this money?”

Oswald moved closer to him, he placed a hand against his cheek, thumb brushing over his skin. 

“My Victor you know it isn’t any problem, funding your brilliant research barely cost me at all. I told you months ago I’d read all about you in the files from Indian Hill and from the police reports and the newspapers, you have such a brilliant and creative mind. I still believe you’re close to a breakthrough.”

How much Oswald believe in him was mind boggling, he didn’t understand it or how he might deserve it. Considering the first time they had met Victor had slammed him against a wall and held an ice pick to his throat threatening to end him, if it hadn’t been for Oswald’s offer to fund his research, and for the fact Ivy had been there then he surely would have killed him. That’s what he thought about when Oswald pressed his lips to his kissing him lovingly, the warmth of his soft lips sent a shiver down his spine. Automatically Victor tangled his fingers in his soft black hair kissing him back with a nearly wanting passion. Oswald broke from the kiss smirking at him.

“Why do you always mess my hair up when we kiss?” He teased  
Lately he seemed to be slicking it back, something he did when he felt he needed a change of pace, but Victor felt lately he was doing for a different reason that he just wasn’t ready to talk about yet.

“I like your hair, I like when its sticking out in all directions. I’m still so sorry for ignoring you this past week, I had planned on curing myself then I was going to take you out for a nice dinner.”

He’d had so many plans, so many things he could have done with him.

Oswald smiled, “We can still do those things.”

“It’s not the same, you know that. I just wanted us to be normal, I just want to be able to get into bed with you, and sleep with you. I can’t even do that without getting sick and nearly dying, I just want to give you the sort of relationship that you deserve to have.”

Tears filled his eyes and he hated himself, he buried his face in his hands firmly rubbing the heels of his hands against his eyes. 

Oswald took hold of his wrists pulling his hands away from his face, Victor immediately looked away from him feeling utterly foolish about all of this.

“Someday we can do all of those things. I know you’ll find a cure, you just need to give it time.” He spoke to him gently as if he were a child throwing a fit.

It was the same tone of voice that Victor normally took with Oswald when he was in the middle of throwing a tantrum over a situation that he had no real control of. 

“I’m getting frustrated with myself, it’s just like when I was trying to find a cure for Nora’s disease. I shouldn’t even find a cure for myself, I don’t deserve it. She died because of me.”

Oswald moved to sit on his lap, he took Victor’s face in his hands staring down at him. There was a scolding look on his face and Victor knew he’d hurt his feelings with what he’d said, he wished he could take it back.

“You deserve the cure to this, she loved you. Nora would want you to find the cure and to save yourself, she didn’t want you to try and take your own life, she didn’t want you to isolate yourself. She would want you to save yourself, to move on and find happiness. I don’t want to lose you, I know it’s selfish, but you’re my second chance at love.”

Victor sat up, he wrapped his left arm around the smaller man’s waist holding him close against him. He stroked his knuckles against his cheek feeling how cold his flushed skin was. He knew Oswald couldn’t stay in the freezer for too much longer, he’d get sick, and Victor was terrified of him getting sick.

“You know I love you, I didn’t mean to make you worry. You aren’t going to lose me little bird, I’m always going to be here with you. I just wanted to do something special for you.”

He thought about the little black ring box in his top dresser drawer hidden beneath shirts that he couldn’t comfortably wear out of the freezer, he was amazed Oswald hadn’t discovered the box when he rummaged through Victor’s shirts looking for one to borrow. 

Oswald kissed his cheek, “I’m sure you’ll find the cure, we have so much time, if anything I’m only going to be more in love with you by the time you have it figured out. Right now, I just need you to take a break from this place and come upstairs with me, I missed the feeling of these strong arms wrapped around me.”

He rubbed his hands over his biceps, momentarily admiring Victor’s body. The older man smirked shaking his head.

Even with whatever amount of time Victor had slept he’d still feel tired, it sounded so tempting to leave his freezer and go upstairs with his boyfriend. He knew he’d only be able to stay with him for five hours, a little over if he really wanted to push himself to the extreme, but he didn’t want to make himself sick and he didn’t want to scare Oswald. He’d kiss him lovingly smiling against his lips.

“I’ll take a break from work, I missed you like crazy you know. It always drives me crazy when I’m away from you for a long period of time.”

Victor got up from the bed taking Oswald with him, the smaller man wrapped his arms around his neck holding onto him. Victor still felt like Hell that he hadn’t managed to find the miracle cure he’d hoped for, but Oswald was right that he had time. He wasn’t on a timer with this, Oswald was always going to be right by his side. He just needed to remember to let him in more often, the last thing he’d ever want was to lose the man he loved.


End file.
